CHALLENGE: DO SOMETHING NEW EACH MONTH

CHALLENGE o2: Get to the airport by myself.


Since I'm going to the airport by myself, I need to plan everything and make sure nothing goes wrong. It feels so daunting, because I've got no one to rely on. If anything happens, I'll have to figure it out myself and need to be confident enough to get help when I need it.

Anyways, this post will just contain all the information I need to actually get myself to the airport.

PLANE DEPATURE: 11.25AM
AIRLINE: Vietnam Airlines
ARRIVAL AT AIRPORT: 2-3 hours before plane departs ==> 8.30-9.30AM

TRANSPORTATION
Destination: Home to Southern Cross
Method: Train
Duration: ~40mins
Cost: FREE, arrive at station before 7am

Destination: Southern Cross to Bus Terminal at Airport
Method: Skybus
Duration: ~20mins
Cost: $16
Purchase: Online or at Skybus booth

Destination: Bus Terminal at Airport to T2 (International Terminal)
Method: Walk
Duration: ~10-20mins
Direction: MAP1

PREPARING TO FLY
Checking IN:

• Go to counter on FIRST floor of Terminal 2
• Passport
• Travel documents (ticket and/or booking reference)
• Departing passenger card
• Counters OPEN 2hr and 30min before scheduled time of departure (9AM)
  
• Counters for Vietnam Airline: 66-77
  

Customs and Border Protection:

• Be here ~90min before departure time (10AM)
  
• Take laptop, mobile and coins out
• Present liquids, gels (>100mL) and Polaroid film
• **Carry-on baggage can weigh up to 7kg, maximum size of 115 cm (56 cm x 36 cm x 23 cm)**
  

Anyways, I'm about to set off. I can't help feeling so excited despite not sleeping at all. Yeah, I ended up just painting my nail, watching drama etc just to keep myself awake. I don't want to miss my plane, so this is my sacrifice. Afterall, I can catch up on sleep once I hop on the plane. It's just waiting at the airport for 3-4hours that's gonna be hell.

Alright, time to go.

Farewell my friends, I'll see you soon.

ZE:A "covering" Lazy Song

This made my day.

Movies I want to watch

Harry Potter in 99 seconds

Jade Palace Lock Heart

This will be a quick post, I'll come back to it later (maybe).

Anyway, you guys have no idea how much I love the OTP of this drama. This is the first time I've actually bothered to cut a scence (that lasts for 5sec really..) and make it into a GIF and upload it to youtube just so I can watch it whenever I feel like it. I sooo need to get better at making GIFs...

I.T. FREAK

Back in the good old days, I used to play around with the computer a lot. I would download a bunch of programs and test them out. Eventually, I'll find one that I'm satisfied with and the one that would give me the least problems.

And then, my appreciation for KPOP started. Man did my world explode.

I remember back in those days, not many videos were subbed. Even if they were, they were usually soft-subbed. As I started liking groups that were lesser known (read- non-idols), the more I wanted to learn about their music and maybe watch them on some shows if I'm lucky enough.

Unfortunately, those stuff were scarce. So I thought I'll just start subbing with raw videos and translations for my own benefit. I never released my work because I was always using someone else's translations. Of course, I would always credit them in my videos.

But the process of learning how the subbing process worked, and to actually do them myself, was tiring and a lot of work. A lot of stuff went wrong (like the codec not being recognised, audio not being in sync etc) but for some reason I just continued with it.

Maybe it was because I had nothing else better to do. Maybe it was because I always wanted to complete something I started.

Eventually I got the hang of timing, type setting, qc-ing and encoding. But I was always a perfectionist when it came to my work, so I would watch the video, find mistakes and encode everything again. I think for a drama (~1hr 10min) it would take me 3.5 hours to complete the subbing process (if I didn't have to do the timing myself). And that's without me having to do translations.

If I did have to time, then it would probably take me 5-15+ hours (depending on length of video). Thankfully I never really challenged myself to do a drama. Plus I didn't really need to since all subbing groups release their subtitles already timed (duh! :P)

Anyway, I started subbing again. I'm currently watching a Chinese drama (Jade Palace Lock Heart - I LOVE YOU 8TH PRINCE!!). My TV can play the subtitles without any problems, but the thing is, Chinese dramas for some reason tend to have their own subtitles encoded in the video. It's broadcasted that way so there's not way I can get rid of them.

Now, imagine reading white-coloured English subtitles ontop of white-coloured Chinese subititles. Such bliss isn't it?

So yeah, my sister and I eventually got fed up so I decided to start hard-subbing them. It's been so long that I was scared I wouldn't be able do it right. Now, I would like to share some images and terms... hahaha :D

- TERMS -

soft-subs: videos with the subtitles separate (ie. a subtitle file like SRT, ASS etc)
hard-subs: videos with the subtitles encoded on them


subbing: the process of encoding subtitles onto the video
raw video: the video by itself, no subtitles
timing: timing when someone speaks, line for line


type setting:set subtitle style (font, size, colour, alignment etc)
quality control: checking whether everything was right and accurate as possible
encoding: putting everything together - video and subtitles

WIKI THIS - Don't ask, don't tell

Don't ask, don't tell

Teresa Teng - Tian Mi Mi

WIKI THIS - Illuminati

Illuminati

First Year of Uni - Last Days

During the final week of uni, I went about taking pictures with the new friends I made with a polaroid. That's right! I HAVE UNI FRIENDS! MHAHAHA. I think I've made a lot more friends in semester 2 than I did in semester 1. I reckon it's because of OPTICS. Compared to my other classes, Optics is by far the smallest - with only 20-30 people rocking up to lectures.

Luckily, I met some of these people in semester 1 and semester 2 gave me a chance to get to know them more. This is the case for Julie, Tina, Amanda, Theresa (I don't think they really count, cause you know, Springvale people after all :D), Kevin, Cameron, Nikki, Carnation, Katrina, Nancy and Diane. However, I didn't get to see a lot of the friends I made in semester 1 like Kim, Thomas and Edip. I wish I had thought of the idea to use my polaroid to take pictures in the last week in semester 1. Now I'll never have the chance to :(

Anywho, here are most of the polaroids that I took. I edited them a bit, but who cares :P



1st row: Carnation, Sam, Triple S
2nd row: Theresa, Nancy and Katrina, Julie
3rd row: Tina, Cameron, Sharon
4th row: Nikki, Sandra, Amanda
5th row: ME, Kevin, Jason
6th row - people I wanted to take a picture with: Kim, Thomas, Edip, Khiang, Adrianne, Harin, Diane, Vanessa, this girl from Physics x2.

I'm getting better at using the right settings when taking pictures now! So yeah, at first, a lot of them turned out darker than I would have liked...but at least I've learnt from my mistakes. And errr, sometimes I'm not looking at the camera cause I'm concentrating on pressing the button. It didn't work sometimes so I thought there was something wrong :(

Oh! I took a picture with my lecturer! MHAHAHA. What can I say? I'm a teacher's pet even in uni keke.